Hong Kong, city of riches, also known for high-profile kidnappings

While Hong Kong is known for its tycoons and billionaires, it is also no stranger to kidnappings, such as the one that led to a huge manhunt on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday afternoon, police were still searching for six kidnappers who fled with HK$28 million in ransom money after they abducted a 29-year-old woman from a home in Sai Kung. It was the latest in a long string of high-profile kidnappings in the city's recent history.

Probably the most well-known were the abductions of Li Ka-shing’s son Victor Li Tzar-kuoi in 1996, and billionaire Walter Kwok Ping-sheung, the former chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties, in 1997. Both were carried out by notorious crime king “Big Spender” Cheung Tze-keung.

Victor Li, tied up, blindfolded and gagged, was released after a HK$1 billion ransom was paid to the abductors. Kwok was set free after paying a Cheng cohort HK$600 million after initial refusal to hand over any ransom.

In an interview with mainland media in 2013, Li Ka-shing revealed that the gangsters showed up in his residence in Deep Water Bay, demanding HK$2 billion. Li told Cheung he only had enough cash to pay HK$1 billion then, but he “can go to the bank and withdraw the rest.”

The tycoon did not file a police report and said Cheung later called him to ask how he should spend the money.

Kwok was abducted on his way home on September 26, 1997, more than one year after Li’s release. He was blindfolded and taken to a hut in the New Territories. After his refusal to call his family to prepare the ransom, Kwok was stripped to his underwear, beaten and forced into a makeshift wooden cage.